Eddie Jones has conceded England have a mental block to work through, with no more competitive games before the World Cup.Having romped to a 31-0 lead at home to Scotland in only half an hour, they conceded 38 unanswered points. Scotland were only five minutes away from a first championship win at Twickenham since 1983, before George Ford’s try and conversion in the last minute rescued the draw.

“It’s a bit of a recurring theme for us,” Jones said. “I’ve probably experienced this at least three times in the last 12 months, where we’ve taken control of a game and let our foot off the gas and been unable to get control of it back.”

England 38-38 Scotland: Six Nations ends with thriller – as it happened

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On the tour to South Africa last summer England started the first two Tests playing the rugby of the gods, only to collapse to defeat each time. In the Six Nations superb starts against France and, most tellingly, Wales were not maintained – and now the 38-38 draw with Scotland.

“It is 100% mental. There’s no physical difference out there at all. It’s 100% the way you think. And we’ll get that right. We’ve got good time before the World Cup. These are possibly things the team have had for a long time, even before I’ve had them. So we need to make sure we get the right people in to help us and we’ll sort it out. It’s a lesson.

“The hardest lessons are the best lessons. You want them before you go to a World Cup. If you do that in a pool game against Tonga, for instance, you can find yourself in a difficult situation. We’d rather have those lessons now and we’ll do everything we can to learn from them and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Owen Farrell was in agreement and the captain did not shy away from taking his share of the blame, having been charged down for Scotland’s first try, intercepted for their fifth, the equaliser, and nearly cost England with another controversial challenge in the final quarter. “I’d say it’s definitely mental,” said Farrell. “We saw in the first 20 minutes or so how good we were physically. I think when they did come back and got that momentum shift it probably shocked us that bit too much. We probably gifted them the momentum swing, me more than anyone.”

Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup for the first time in 35 years but this has been a disappointing championship for them, notwithstanding their injury crisis. “We need to be pretty honest about our Six Nations in general,” said Stuart McInally, their captain. “But we’ve done something we haven’t in a long time by retaining the Calcutta Cup.”

Gregor Townsend, Scotland’s coach, described the game as unlike any he has known. “That was a unique game. I’ve never been involved in one like that as a player or coach. There are not many games of rugby that go from 31-0 to 31-38, then end up at 38-all. It’s the most unusual game I’ve been involved in.”